Patients'lives are being put at risk by NHS reforms which the Government 'fraudulently' claims are improving healthcare, says a senior doctor.

Consultant general surgeon David Flook says targets and 'dishonest' initiatives for creating dangerous practices, while the Government hails them for cutting waiting times and cancer deaths.

When it comes to cancer, fast-track referral actually pushes the 'worried well' to the front of the queue instead of focusing on those most at risk, he said.

The expansion of patient choice had, in reality, created a lottery of care because most doctors lacked information about the true abilities of their colleagues, said Dr Flook, who works at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

In an article published in the British Medical Journal, Dr Flook denies he is a Luddite opposed to any reform of the Health Service.

He said 'I am not an opponent of reform, nor are most medical personnel. I would support many changes, including better IT systems, but I do not trust our incompetent Government to introduce them.'

However, he did oppose the 'cynical, superficial reforms through which politicians have exploited the NHS.'

He said 'The fraudulent claims for these reforms are many and varied.

'We now frequently hear health ministers contemplating the recent modest fall in cancer mortality and, subtly and dishonestly, insinuating that initiatives such as the 'two week wait rule' have contributed to this.

'In fact, fast track referral prioritises the worried well at the expense of the target population.

'Of the more than 300 such referrals I have received, only 14 per cent had a cancer, while coincidentally, more than 85 per cent of the cancers I have treated, including 98 per cent of the potentially curable cases, came via other referral pathways, with no trend for improvement.'

Other examples of 'subtle misinformation' were targets set for accident and emergency waiting times, with reductions hailed as evidence of improved performance.

'But this overlooks the sometimes dangerous means by which this goal as achieved, such as the premature transfer of acutely ill patients to almost anywhere outside A&E' he added.

Every day and night, he said, ambulances transported the sickest NHS patients from one hospital to another 'because of local bed shortages'.

Yet, Mr Flook said, he had repeatedly "heard health ministers say that there is no crisis in intensive care.'

'Had the first victim of such a transfer been related to a member of the Government, I doubt such outrages would still be commonplace.'

Doctors had been squeezed out of priority setting in the NHS - by politicians, he said.

Managers are forced to implement the latest vote-winning initiative and avoid political upsets - even at the expense of patients, he claimed.

'Independent treatment centres have been introduced, sometimes regardless of the need for their services and employing staff who need not meet the standards for NHS appointees and whose treatment outcomes are frequently unacceptable' he said.

The warning comes amid rising concern about Government reforms, amid service cutbacks and staff redundancies aimed at curbing financial deficits.

NHS complaints have reached record levels, particularly from patients and their families forced to appeal after failing to get satisfactory answers from local hospital managers.

Earlier this year James Johnson, chairman of the council of the British Medical Association (BMA), warned that doctors all over the country were 'seriously worried about where the NHS is going'.

He said the' breakneck pace and incoherent planning' behind the reforms were seriously destabilising the NHS.

'The message I am getting from the medical profession is that the NHS is in danger and doctors have been marginalised' he said.

A Department of Health spokesman said 'NHS cancer services have been transformed in recent years.

'The two-week wait has been an important part of this success. It is contributing to better detection and quicker treatment for patients.

'The two-week wait should also be seen in the context of the Government's wider programme for modernising cancer services and as a step on the way to faster treatment along the whole patient journey.

'A central theme of our reform programme has been to devolve the running of the NHS to local people.

'Right now, our reform programme offers clinicians and local people even more opportunities than ever before to get involved in shaping NHS services.'